The Void
by Aegean Sea
Summary: Deidara thought that she was just accompanying her professor on a simple dig for an internship, but little did she know that things would change drastically for everyone involved. AU/AR Sasori-Deidara with gender-bending.


_**Note: **This story is something that I've been toying around with in my head for a while, and I decided that I'd give it a try. It relies heavily on archaeology, and I know a lot of you know what it is, but I wanted to try and put you all in the place of a real archaeologist and what a real dig is like. Bear with me, sometimes archaeology is really boring, and I apologize._

_Also, I've taken a little liberty with this world, but I tried to keep it geographically like our world actually is. As such, you'll see Japanese first names with different origin last names and vice versa- please deal with this; in my mind, this world is more mixed than ours is, and it was the only way I could get it to really work. If you're still confused, let me know and I'll try and explain the world better._

_I know my gender-bended characters are male in the series, but I just wanted to tweak things a bit and play around; I was bored. Let me know if I stray from keeping the characters as in-character as possible with the gender differences and being outside of their actual world; I'm trying to keep it as close to personalities as possible. Please give me some constructive criticism, I want to improve!_

_**Rating:** Teen_

_**General Warnings:** AU/AR, Gender-bending, alcohol use, mentions of sex (though no depictions), perhaps some confusion on parts (if this happens, feel free to let me know; I'll try and explain it more in an email), violence._

_**Chapter Warnings:** AU/AR, Gender-bending, alcohol use, perhaps a bit of a dry chapter to set the scene._

_**Disclaimer for Entire Story:** Anything that is mentioned that you've seen before belongs to its proper owners. You'll probably notice a few deviations from actual names of licensed people, stores, things, anything that's copy written in general that you'll recognize; my apologies if that's annoying, but I don't want to have my works banned from this website for not following their rules._

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It was a sunny Monday afternoon around two-thirty in the beginning of April. The temperature was wonderful thanks to spring, and those inside glanced with envy outside at those who were not as unlucky. Those stuck inside tried to quell this jealous looking by starting conversations with friends about what they would do when classes were over or studying for tests and other miscellaneous coursework. Sometimes one could catch a snippet of a class going on through an open door, but the general ruckus outside tended to blot this out for most, and no one paid attention to those classes. Students were still filing into the building to be on time for their classes while those whose classes were ended early left quickly to go enjoy the warm afternoon.

The building itself was known as the Smith Learning Center, and held various classes of various disciplines. It was a simple hallway filled with six classrooms in the middle section with two or three halls splitting from this section where more classrooms laid and five floors, all identical. The only difference was that on the second floor, doors led students in and out of the building and the first floor was below ground. The hallways of the building provided seating for students, but not enough for every student to have a chair, and some students stood while waiting for their classes.

A young woman of twenty-one stepped off of the elevator with various other students and walked down the hallway to the open corridor her class was held in. Despite the stairs available for people to use and for emergencies, her class was on the top floor, and climbing up to the fifth floor all the way from the first floor was way too much work. Today was a special day for her, her twenty-first birthday, and she was determined to have nothing go wrong. Already her friends had planned a great night for her, and she could hardly wait for that to come. All she had to do was get through this last class, and then she would be on her way back to her apartment where her friends would be waiting for her.

The young woman's name was Deidara Petit. As her last name suggested, she was of French descent, coming to America from Bordeaux with her family when she was in elementary school. Her hair was long and naturally blond, and always kept in some sort of ponytail. Today it was in a low ponytail swept over her shoulder and her bangs were to the left side of her face, not quite covering all of her eye but still in her vision. Like all French women, Deidara was well-dressed, perhaps a bit nicer than usual. She was wearing a violet dress with various lavender and pink geometric designs on it and had it belted at her waist with a brown belt, the buckle to the side. To accompany this, the blonde was wearing her favorite brown boots from Bull's-Eye. She left her face rather plain, though she did pay attention to her eyes, which she used her favorite mascara on to really make them pop.

Perhaps she was a little over-done for a simple day of classes, but today was her birthday, and Deidara was going to enjoy it. With her bag over her shoulder, the blond walked to her classroom in the main hall, and took a seat next to another of her classmates typing something on his computer. She glanced over to the young man, Gregory if she remembered correctly, and, deciding to distract him for a bit (it was her birthday, he should pay attention to her!), struck up a conversation.

"That's not for this class, is it?" the blond asked the brown-haired boy, her French accent slight on her words.

Gregory stopped typing, and looked to the petite blond next to him before shaking his head with a smile.

"No, it's for my Cultural Anthropology class," her classmate responded with a sigh. "I wish Dr. Kennedy wasn't so harsh."

To this, Deidara just shook her head, remembering that class from her sophomore year. Dr. Kennedy was a terrible teacher who loved the papers, at least one every two weeks if she remembered correctly.

"Ah, I remember her, with all the papers, yes?" She received a nod in return. "If you get a B or higher on every one, you don't have to take the final, though."

This seemed to make Gregory's day, and he smiled, relieved.

"That's wonderful!" he exclaimed. "So far I've been getting B-plusses on them. Thanks for telling me that, Deidara!"

The blond female, in return, smiled to her classmate and welcomed him.

"I wish Dr. Andersen was like that, but didn't he tell us on the first day that no matter what our grade was, we had to take the final?" Gregory then asked, to which Deidara nodded again.

"Yes, but I'm kind of glad he did. I always do better on his tests than his papers; no matter how hard I work on them, they're never good enough."

The two then paused in their conversation as the class before theirs was let out, and Gregory then saved his document and shut his laptop. As the last student in the trickle went to the stairs, the two classmates as well as the others in the area stood up and entered the classroom quietly, as the professor for the last class was answering a student's question. Deidara took her seat in the classroom and the student left, allowing the professor to pack up and move out as well. Another ten minutes went by with students trickling in, and soon the classroom was nearly full. Finally, three rolled around, and all talking in the class had dulled down to a low murmur.

The door opened again, and in stepped Dr. Andersen with his graduate assistant Sasori Karimi. Immediately the professor, a medium-sized man with hard gray eyes and well-trimmed brown hair, stood at the front of the class and set up his presentation while Sasori took his seat silently. Deidara noticed many an eye go to the graduate student in the front row, especially the freshman who sat next to him. Idly, she thought the girl unlucky, because it was obvious that the poor, over-hormonal freshman would not be paying attention to class. Well, it was her fault, for sitting next to the young man.

Sasori Karimi was perhaps one of the many graduate students that her friend categorized as "smokin' hot." Deidara wasn't sure she would categorize him as that (her friend was a bit loose with the term sometimes), but he was nice to look at. His red hair was not necessarily shaggy, but it was obvious that he did little to get it styled how he wanted it, and his eyes were what the young woman would describe as rosewood. Right now he was filling out a form of some sorts, either for the professor or something that he had to do for a class. As the class began, the students got to work jotting down notes and listening to the professor, and Deidara couldn't wait for class to be over.

Surprisingly, Dr. Andersen ended the class a bit early today, though he did stop the chattering that had started. Once everything was silent again and the students stopped shuffling around, he glanced through the class and prepared for his announcement.

"I need Johnson, Lebedev, Petit, Nguyen, and King to stay after class, please. The rest of you are dismissed," the professor directed, silently waiting for those not called to leave the class.

Once the final student left after signing the attendance sheet, Sasori closed the door and then went back to collecting various papers and packing up. The five called students were standing around waiting for the professor, who took a few papers and forms from his bag. Deidara had no idea what was going on, but she didn't think it would be good. Both the professor and his assistant looked so serious. Serious never meant anything good in her experiences. She nervously brushed her bang away from her eye, and just at that time, Dr. Andersen had collected all his papers and began handing them out. Each student took one silently, and then looked to the professor.

"Congratulations to each and every one of you," the man said, cracking what would have to be deemed a smile for him. "Many others signed up for the internship, but my wife and I had gone over every application and their grades in this class and decided that you five were the most promising to come along with us on our dig this summer."

To this, most students then looked happy, quickly glancing through the papers. Deidara, too, shared this happiness, but instead of looking, she watched the professor. The young woman could barely remember signing up for the internship, and she _knew_ that she didn't get interviewed for it. However, he wouldn't have given it to her had she not filled a form out, and so she just accepted it, finally realizing that this would be her first ever real dig. Deidara leafed through the papers while listening to Dr. Andersen's next words.

"Those papers are just forms you'll need to fill out to go, and be sure to have a passport. Talk it over with your parents and give me your acceptance or denial in an email. Once again, congratulations, and you're all dismissed."

Deidara stood up with the others and then stuffed the papers into her bag before leaving the classroom. She joined the crowd of students out of the building and over to the subway station. After about ten minutes of waiting, the proper train stopped and she got on, sitting next to an elderly woman who looked a little worse for wear. After three more stops she got off the train and walked to her apartment, her excitement from earlier coming back and mixing with her excitement for her birthday.

Soon enough the excitement doubled as her roommate came back home, throwing her arms around her friends once again and wishing her a loud happy birthday. Deidara begrudgingly accepted, and then smiled to her, hoping that her friend could see it through her wild hair.

"Thanks, Tobi," she said as her roommate, Tobi, released her.

Tobi was five months older than Deidara, and an Uchiha. This meant that she was full-blooded Japanese with dark hair that tended to be a bit messy (but tastefully so). Tobi had also inherited the Uchiha eyes, strange red eyes that apparently were from some genetic mutation in the family. The two had met in orientation their freshman year and had been friends since, though sometimes Tobi annoyed Deidara, and she was sure that she annoyed Tobi just as much. Either way, Deidara was glad for the company, and for the beginning of the birthday celebrations.

Not long after the hug and Tobi's gift to Deidara, a knock came to the door, and Deidara opened it to see two more of her friends, Hidan and Kakuzu. Hidan was a year older than both Tobi and Deidara, a senior who majored in world religions at the university very close to Tobi and Deidara's apartment. His gray hair always looked slicked back, but according to Kakuzu never had any hair gel in it, and his eyes were an entrancing cerise. He claimed that they were magenta, but Deidara swore they were cerise, and the two had argued about it ever since. Kakuzu, on the other hand, was a female graduate student at Deidara's university studying accounting. She was tall and tan with stunning green eyes and medium-length black hair, and despite being a bit grumpy sometimes, was a wonderful friend, though she did somehow get all the gossip about her friends.

"Congratulations, Deidara," she said to the blond, who glanced to her questionably as Hidan yammered on to Tobi about which liquor store to go to. "Sasori told me you were one of the five undergrads selected to go on that dig in Mexico with him and Dr. Andersen," she explained further.

That caught Deidara off-guard, as she didn't know why Sasori was talking about her, but the blond just thanked her and smiled appreciatively. It was no secret that Kakuzu and Sasori were friends, as Kakuzu had told Deidara when she first started her class this semester, so she wasn't terribly surprised, but she wondered how Sasori knew that she and Kakuzu were friends; they had never seen each other outside of class, but, Deidara supposed, being mutual friends with Kakuzu would probably account for that.

"Alright, that's enough of that! Come on, we have to meet everyone for your celebration," Hidan told everyone, pushing them all out the door after placing a birthday tiara on Deidara's head.

The group then headed out with Kakuzu as the designated driver to go meet the others at the fraternity house the blond found herself at more than often. Hidan was a part of the fraternity, and Deidara had gotten to know everyone there, all the boys and their girlfriends included, through him, though she had also learned from less innocent means. It was pretty much in the middle of everything and the easiest place for everyone to meet. Once they arrived and everyone who could come was there, the group took off for a night of excessive drinking and celebrating.

As she was taken home to the apartment after hearty celebrating, Deidara glanced out the window to the late-night city lights. A large smile was on her face as Kakuzu pulled up to the apartment and she and Tobi got out, a giggling mess. With some help from Kakuzu, as Hidan was so far gone that he could merely sit in the seat and stare outside, the two made it inside and bid goodnight, and then headed to their own rooms. She fell asleep almost instantly, being what people would classify as the sleepy drunk, a smile still on her face. So far, everything was going right with the world, and soon she would be on her first dig ever. It was so close that Deidara could almost touch it.


End file.
